Ethiopian Civil Service University

Rural-Urban Development
MDM5061

CHAPTER EIGHT: RURAL – URBAN

INTERACTION
May 2022
 Chapter Eight
CHAPTER 8: RURAL-URBAN INTERACTION
8.1. Fundamental resource flows
8.2. Formal and Informal Linkages between Rural and
Urban areas
8.3. Policy implications of rural-urban linkages
 Concept of urban-rural interaction
■ Cities can no longer be treated as distinct spaces unconnected to the regions
surrounding them.
■ The functioning of urban settlements depends on the surrounding rural areas for
 food & water supply, waste disposal, recreational value & the growth of
settlements.
■ In order to sustain both urban & rural livelihoods & ecosystems, there is a need for the
sustainable mgt. of the resources requirements of urban & peri-urban areas.
■ Sustainable forms of urbanization require a coherent approach to the rural-urban
interface.
■ This interface is a highly dynamic & complex system of land use, constituted by a
singular mixture of ecosystems.
■ On many city borders, peri-urban & urban agriculture, industry & transport compete
for water resources.
■ Furthermore, the rural-urban interface can become the “backyard” for urban waste
disposal, imposing severe impacts on the health of ecosystems & human
 Fundamental resource flows
■ In 2000, the UN Commission on Sustainable Development urged governments at
national & local levels & the international community to “take a strategic land
mgt. approach aimed at promoting interaction between urban & rural areas.”
– Rural-urban linkages can increase the vulnerability of the urban & rural poor.
■ However, the recognition of rural-urban systems and the interdependencies of
populations living and working in both areas create new prospects for poverty
alleviation in many regions in the developing world.
– When carefully managed, rural-urban interactions can result in harmonious
regional development outcomes.
■ Understanding the Rural-Urban Interface
– The rapid population growth of Third World cities gives rise to concerns about the
changing nature of the relationship between urban & rural.
 Fundamental resource flows
■ The Figure illustrates
schematically the way rural–urban
flows have been organized in most
cases.
■ However, the figure has
limitations, as most two-
dimensional representations of
complex systems have.
■ One of the key ideas the figure
presents is the possibility of each
of the flows to work in either
direction.
■ Under certain conditions one-way
flows may dominate, or the
emphasis may change over time or
from one context to the next.
 Fundamental resource flows…
– The flows of people & food & natural flows are represented above ground to
acknowledge their visibility.
– Money & ideas are less tangible & involve service sectors in delivery, so are
represented below ground as they are less obvious.
– One of the main limitations of the figure is that it represents city & countryside as
clearly separate.
– This ignores distinctions between city & countryside can become unclear.
■ Until relatively recently much rural–urban research has focused on a single city &
its hinterland.
– However, the increasing importance of international links & the process of
globalization have an impact on rural–urban relations.
– In addition, cities throughout the world are often caught between the pressure to
be included in the world economy, on the one hand, & on the other the need for
links with their rural hinterlands.
– Such tensions raise issues that have not been considered until recently.
– This tension is paralleled in the competing processes of globalization &
 The urban-rural linkage
Hodder (2000) identifies six key reasons for these close links between U-R
1. Agriculture depends on manufactured goods both for the transformation of produce
(for example, farm tools, machinery, inputs) & for the consumer goods which are
in demand as agricultural incomes rise (such as radios & bicycles).
2. Modern agricultural practice may leads a country into industrial based economy
3. Agriculture provides raw materials for some industries, such as tobacco, cotton
4. Agriculture for export can earn foreign exchange which is important for purchasing
items that are vital to industrial processes.
5. There is an important balance to be struck in incomes, prices & taxation between
the urban & the rural areas.
For example, high food prices provide rewards to farmers & incentives to increase production, but
may mean high prices in urban areas which can lead to poverty & unrest. Taxation in the
agricultural sector may be necessary to raise revenues to finance public expenditure, but may act as
a disincentive to farmers, particularly if much of the expenditure is urban focused.
6. Agriculture support urban area by ensuring food security at prices that are
affordable.
■ Evolutions of the urban-rural linkage approaches
■ 1950s –views were in favor of large scale transfer of agricultural surplus to the
industrial sector (towns) as the driving force of economic growth and modernization.
i.e. justifying appropriation of rural resources by cities.
■ Late 1950s and 1960s – came out an opposite model on spatial polarization and core-
periphery relationship.
■ 1970s- core-periphery strategy was replaced by promotion of rural towns (market
towns) strategy to fill the gap between the “evil city’ and the countryside. I.e. service
center promotion approach
■ 1980s and 90s – the urban-rural linkage approach has been influenced by new global
trends like globalization, decentralization and growing attention to urban sector
development strongly linked with rural areas.
– Urban and rural areas have traditionally been viewed as exclusive and competing
spheres placed in separate areas for planning, development and investment purposes.
Evolutions of the urban-rural linkage approaches
■ But the importance of a more holistic approach to local, national and regional territorial
development is currently receiving increasing recognition in the international development
agendas, and the potential of urban-rural linkage approach to development is attracting greater
advocacy.
■ It is now widely recognized that there exists
– an economic,
– social and
– environmental interdependence between urban and rural areas and a need for balanced and
mutually supportive approach to development of the two areas.
■ The discrete consideration of rural development as completely distinct from urban development
is no longer valid.
■ A new perspective, referred to as the rural urban linkage development approach, is increasingly
becoming the accepted approach.
■ Rural-urban linkage generally refers to the growing flow of public and private capital, people
and goods between urban and rural areas.
■ It is important to add to these, the flow of ideas, information and innovation.
 Policy dimensions for urban-rural linkage
Physical Linkages
■ Scholars have noted that transportation networks “allow greater access to
agricultural employment, improve communications & allow greater access to
nonagricultural employment…& extend areas of service delivery.”

– The creation of farm-to-market road networks pulled together in one national

market what years ago were dozens of small autonomous regions .

■ within the East African region, “farm-to market roads have promoted new markets,
increased interaction among villages, liked agricultural production areas to crop
collection & distribution centers, and made new crops economically viable.”
 …policy dimensions for urban-rural linkage
Economic Linkages
■ Urban centers offer outlets for primary products produced in the rural areas.
– They also offer opportunity for non-farm employment opportunities.
– The establishment of linkages between resource areas & the market centers is a
primary force in the commercialization of agriculture, diversification of production
& the expansion of the spatial systems of exchange.
■ money flows between urban & rural areas are a major component of urban-rural
linkages adding that remittances can amount to as much as 50 to 80% of the
families’ income & that such remittances are highest in the low income families
particularly those who are dependent on farm income.
– remittances are part of a pattern of linkages that help forge the links not only
among family & community members but also between transfers at different points
on the rural-urban continuum.
■ in many cultures family & cultural events such as weddings, births, & funerals
bring dispersed people together, providing opportunities for exchange of
information & goods & for maintaining networks which can encourage further
exchanges & migration.
…policy dimensions for urban-rural linkage
Population Movement Linkages
■ Short term & permanent migration of people from rural to urban areas or from
urban to rural areas is an important form of urban rural linkages.
Social Linkages
■ market towns & intermediate towns….” are the focal points for a wide variety of
social linkages among development centers & between those centers & their rural
hinterlands.
– Market centers perform many social roles in rural areas.
– In many African countries, economic exchange grew out of traditional social
gatherings & rituals.
– The types & frequency of economic activities were closely linked to social events
because traditional African markets provided an important locus of social
interaction.
 …policy dimensions for urban-rural linkage

Service Delivery linkages

■ Traditionally urban areas were providers of specialized services for their rural
hinterlands.
■ Increasing the physical, economic & technological linkages among central places
is critical for the expansion of the service delivery networks.
– Where transport & communications networks have been developed between urban
rural areas, rural families living close to urban areas are able to take advantage of
improved & specialized services in urban areas.
– While improved accessibility to urban areas makes it possible for people in the
rural areas to enjoy high quality services from urban areas, it is not often easy for
urban planner to know precisely whom they are planning for.
– The result is that available urban services are stretched to their limits.
 …policy dimensions for urban-rural linkage
Political and Administrative Linkages
■ spatial systems are integrated & transformed through a serious of political &
administrative linkages reflected in formal government structural relationship,
flows of public budget resources, administrative authority, supervision &
approval of expenditure.
– Political linkages are an important means of securing development resources
from the central government agencies & urban-based elite for community based
projects in the rural areas.
– An important aspect of Africa’s political system is that because a majority of
legislators represents rural constituencies there are close ties between urban-
based political interests & rural based political interests.
■ Many councilors in the rural areas are closely associated to members of
parliament.
 Factors of Urban-Rural Linkage
■ It may seem obvious that the links between cities & the countryside depend on
the infrastructure connecting them, or that sustainable economic, social &
environmental development is hinged to a large degree on the interdependence
between urban & rural areas.
■ Factors influencing the nature & degree of rural-urban linkage:
– level of infrastructure, mainly transport
– Public policy/strategy on human settlement,
– Capacity of urban centers in providing services & market
– Rural productivity & size /composition of rural supplies
– Institutional & legal framework in managing urban-rural relationships